Could City look south for inspiration?

[BBC] Bristol City's attempts to get back to the top flight after an absence of 46 years have got off to a better than expected start. They go into the first international break with 13 points from eight games. It leaves them in eighth place and if they are still there after 46 games then under the new qualifying format they will be in the play-offs for the second time in three years. Right now the fanbase seem more unified than they have been for a while. I do not hear too many murmurs of dissatisfaction about this being a "Three Year Project" under the much changed leadership structure fronted by Michael Skubala, with a professional team behind him in sporting director James Ellis, chief executive Charlie Boss plus the increasingly (I'm sure) influential former Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore, who formally joined the board last year. Football supporters across the country are renowned for their impatience so an apparent acceptance of City not making it to the top flight at the first time of asking under this new regime is a rare quality the club's ownership should be grateful for. That being said I am probably not alone in casting an envious eye in the direction of Bournemouth, Brentford, and Brighton who, last week, proved their credentials as worthy of having their place at football's top table. [Shutterstock] Bournemouth secured an impressive away result in their first ever competitive game in Europe against Real Sociedad in the Europa League. Meanwhile Brentford and Brighton humbled Chelsea and Arsenal in emphatic wins that saw their opponents scoreless. For most of my 60 years supporting this club, the trio of Bournemouth, Brentford and Brighton I have always considered inferior. The Cherries still have a stadium more the size of a League One ground, while it's not so long ago that the Bees were playing at the compact Griffin Park and Brighton at the infamous Withdean Stadium. How have these clubs achieved their current status, which looks like being maintained for the foreseeable future? As I see it the Cherries had a good manager in Eddie Howe who, in his second spell at the club took them out of League One and into the Championship, where they consolidated for one season before winning the title in 2014-15. However, the club achieved that feat by breaking the Financial Fair Play rules that were in place at that time and they negotiated the initial £7.6m fine for doing so down to £4.75m – a small price to pay in view of the riches that followed their promotion. Brentford and Brighton have adopted a very different approach and that is a reliance on data when it comes to player recruitment. The south coast side took this approach to the maximum when in November 2024 they dismissed the majority of their traditional scouting staff, reducing their full-time scout operation to three people. In doing that they decided that the algorithmic approach to making player recruitment decisions was more reliable than the human eye. Clearly talent acquisition in football has moved on from the manager taking a final check on a prospective target in person on a cold wet night in Stoke. Through the viewing multiple times of performance enhancing YouTube video clips to this now data led approach, it will be interesting to see if, one day, City end up doing something similar. You can hear more from David Pottier on the Forever Bristol City podcast. Don't forget to tap the 'follow' button at the top of this page to stay up to date with the latest Bristol City news.